Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/301

Rh দেখিলাম, দেখিনু, etc. It is very clear that ল of our past tense came out of either ত or ন of the past participle. The Prākṛta from which Bengali is directly derived, gives us অ as the অপভ্রংশ form of ত of the past participle; the অ of প্রাকৃত became আ in Bengali to give rise to special forms as করা কাজ, কওয়া কথা, গণা টাকা, ছাড়া কাপড়, ছেঁড়া কাগজ, মরা মানুষ, etc. The corresponding Oriya forms are however like these,—কলা কাম, গলা কথা, মলা লোক, etc. As to the ন forms of ত as we get in ভিন্ন (Sans.) and দিন্ন (প্রাকৃত), we may notice the Bengali past participle forms, such as আঁচড়ান চুল, কোঁচান কাপড়, সাজান বাগান etc.

Special past form.—A special form in the past tense may be noted here. The particle 'ন' indicating negation coalesced with 'অত্থি' and gave rise to the form 'নত্থি' (does not exist) as a single word; 'নাই' in our vernacular being the decayed form of নৎথি is not a simple particle to signify negation but carries with it the verb 'to be' in enclitic form. 'নাই' is alone sufficient to express 'does not exist' and such a Hindi form as 'নেহি হায়' has no place in Bengali. I have already stated that if to indicate negation this word 'নাই' be joined to the archaic past form, the full-bodied modern past form will be dispensed with; 'করি নাই' fully signifies 'I did not do.'

The Imperative mood.—Before dealing with the future system, an examination of the Bengali Imperative mood is necessary. I had occasion to show in a previous lecture that such প্রাকৃত forms to denote the imperative mood in the 3rd person, as কর্-উ, জা-উ, খা-উ, etc., are in use in Oriya, and the Bengali forms করুক্, যাক্, খাক্, etc., are the very old forms with the addition of an otiose ক; that the forms in the 2nd person কর, যাও, খাও, etc., are almost universal, in the vernaculars, and that they come from the Prākṛta করহ, জাহ (as well as জাঅ), খাহ (খাঅ) etc., need hardly be pointed out. As in the Prākṛtas, so